§ Mr. Leslie Huckfieldasked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs whether he will make a further statement on British policy towards the illegal régime in Rhodesia.
§ Miss Joan LestorI have nothing to add to the reply my right hon. Friend gave to the hon. Member for Epping Forest (Mr. Biggs-Davison) on 21st May.—[Vol. 892, c. 1408–10.]
§ Mr. Fauldsasked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what information he has about the arrest of Mr. Percy Mkudu, Mr. John Mutasa, Mr. M. Nyagumbo and Mr. M. Mahachi by the illegal régime in Rhodesia; and whether he will make a statement.
§ Miss Joan LestorI understand that some 21 Africans in all, including those named by my hon. Friend, have been arrested since early April when the Rhodesian authorities announced that they had discovered a group in the Umtali area engaged in recruiting Africans for guerrilla training and taking them over the border into Mozambique. The charge of
recruiting, or assisting in the recruitment of guerrillasunder the Law and Order (Maintenance) Act as amended in 1974 carries a mandatory death sentence. I understand that several of the accused, including Mr. Mkudu, have been remanded on bail.In our view, all executions in Rhodesia are illegal. They are particularly repugnant when they are a result of the mandatory death sentence provisions to which 694W I have referred. Quite apart from these considerations, however, further executions under the above Act would also be a clear infringement of the spirit of the Lusaka Agreement to which the régime was a party last December. They can only make progress towards a negotiated settlement — which Mr. Smith has repeatedly said he wants—immeasurably more difficult. For all these reasons it is the Government's earnest hope that the Rhodesian régime will make it clear that there will be no more such executions.